Whats the advantages of a brand new school - and the disadvantages

[adelicatequestion]

DD may go to a brand new school - the second year intake.

Anyone got any experiences?

I would want to be very clear as to what is the history of this school. Most 'new' schools are actually amalgamations of previous schools, and often failing schools.

Where have the Management come from, and how have they been able to make the staff gel together as a team?

You say dd will be the second year intake - do you mean there are no older children in the school? And they are just taking on one year at a time?

Obviously in terms of advantages you can expect new/state-of-the art facilities and resources.

However, many schools take a few weeks to get into the swing of things in a regular September, just with the rate that things change in schools these days; there are usually new Schemes of Work and so on in at least one subject or year group. With a whole new school it is likely that all teachers will be teaching mostly new Schemes of Work for all classes. This is particularly demanding.

In my town there will be major secondary schools re-organisation during the time my boys will be at secondary. (Probably expanding two schools, closing three schools, and opening one new huge academy.) It will be a time of great disruption, and is one of the (many) reasons that my boys will not be going to one of the schools that are being re-organised. I don't want them to be guinea pigs.

Many years ago I started infants in a brand new school building. The old traditional separate boys and girls victorian school had moved there though, so it wasn't completely new although it was a lot bigger than before and many of the teachers were new. It was great having all new books, educational aids, furnature etc. but there were some older children there (and the older year groups filled to capacity quite quickly too). I wasn't aware of any problems, but at 4 I might not have been best placed to notice them.

A friend of mine works at a school which opened 4 years ago. There were tons of resources, state of the art equipment, seemingly lots of funds for staff facilities. It was great but everything was done from scratch so lots of extra work for staff. I think the main downside was that it opened a year later than expected and so the kids were 'parked' for a year in other schools and consequently there were many discipline issues to begin with. Obviously, though, that would not necessarily happen elsewhere!

Upside- new facilities that tie into new directives like individual learning
Good basic facilities like canteens and toilets which can often be very 'tired in older schools
Better designed classrooms with attention paid to things like good chairs and desk sizes, that may have been over looked in the past.
No 'History' to pull the school down
Excitement of a fresh start

Downside Lots of work for the staff
No 'matured' pastoral care
No 'History' to move things up!
Excitement that may spill over into problems

Loads of brand new schools open in Milton Keynes because of our expanding population. They all seem to be very popular when they open and they all seem to do quite well.

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